I have a 98 Cherokee 4x4 automatic 2 door and when i go to turn it over it clicks once then kills all dash lights i can get them to come back on by resetting the cpu with pulling off the negative battery terminal but its just repeating it any one have any ideas?

 

You would need to check your battery, main cables and posts, refresh main earths, starter motor, in that order

 

Try running a new BAT+ wire to the starter

 

What do you mean by new earths? And if i did rnu a new battery plus wire to the starter does it need to be a certain gage?

 

Grounds

 

check the battery with a multimeter, you want 12.5V

you can also short the starter and solenoid terminals with a ring spanner, ignition on, dont run yrself over

the grounds (or earths), especially the 2 on the engine block are easy to check

not hard to take starter out and see if it spins..doesnt completely rule out a defect though..found that out the hard way..or yes, you could try run a thick cable straight to it

 

i have tryed shorting the post on the starter solenoid and it still shorted the whole car out

 

I would remove the starter motor and test it with a 12V battery.

An auto electrician should be able to "load" test it for you.. there could be a short in the starter itself, although that would be most unusual

The symptoms you describe are often caused by terminals or main cables that are defective

 

Bad ground, not a good enough connection it usually happens on the negative terminal of the battery , they are a different size than the positive and most terminals are the wrong size to fit nice and snug.

if that’s not it then it’s the other end that connects to the block or the positive wire with the same scenario.

stop resetting the CPU man a starter has nothing to do with the cpu it has two wires that matter , the two that I just went over .

to test that theory short the starter out with a screwdriver

the only thing you just bypassed is switched 12volt from the ignition switch - and that’s easy to fix but first things first short the starter and see what happens.


again the cpu has nothing to do with any of this.

 

When they keep telling you check the grounds. They mean pull off the connection, scrub till shiny and clean and then reconnect snuggly. These Jeeps are HIGHLY dependent on the Grounding System. Check Cruiser54's website. He has a whole page of just ground refreshing. It's free, and often not only solves your problem, but prevents others in the future. Good Luck- God Bless.

 

i am an auto electrician lol but I missed this response.

starter is bad if it has power and ground and still doesn’t work, cut and dry.

get it off and replace it.

hard to diagnose from here but if connections are good and you shorted it there’s no other possibilities honestly.

 

thank you guys so much this should help a lot i have a battery that has side posts on it with the screws not top posts and the neg terminal is stripped and not very snug and when i cross the posts on my starter then every thing cuts out so i will replace both and we should be good to go this is going to be a restoration project for me so dont be suprized if you see me make more posts thanks again

 

My dad once told me when your vehicle has an electrical problem the easiest fix is a lighter and gasoline with some full coverage insurance. He now owes thousands of dollars in tax debt so I wouldn't live by his words. Good luck XD